Various electrical connectors have been provided for terminating flat flexible cable or flexible printed circuitry, and interconnecting the flexible cable or circuitry to a printed circuit board. Connectors of this type typically utilize a dielectric housing such as of molded plastic material, having terminals mounted therein, and a movable actuator insertable into the housing for pressing the flexible cable or circuitry against the terminals.
One area for using such electrical connectors as described above is in a flat panel display for notebook computers. A plug connector is mounted on a printed circuit board with contacts exposed on opposite sides of a plug portion of the connector. The contacts are connected to circuit means on the board. A receptacle connector includes a dielectric housing having a bottom-opening receptacle for positioning over the plug portion of the plug connector. Terminal means are mounted within the receptacle of the receptacle connector for engaging the contacts exposed on opposite sides of the plug portion of the plug connector, and the terminal means have feet for connection, as by soldering, to the circuit traces of a flexible printed circuit.
Presently, the use of such connectors in the aforementioned computer applications has caused problems because of the wide variety of connector configurations. There simply are no standards being applied. In addition, the use of connectors adapted for flexible printed circuits increases the costs of the connector assemblies because of the costs involved in fabricating the flexible printed circuitry. It would be desirable to have some standardization with these connector assemblies, as well as providing an electrical connector for interconnecting less costly flat flexible cable to the plug connector mounted on the printed circuit board. The present invention is directed toward satisfying such needs and solving the problems discussed above.